At ICE Barcelona, a panel on fan engagement brought together leaders from betting, media, social platforms, and sports technology to examine how sports fans actually behave today and what that means for betting platforms trying to stay relevant. Rather than focusing on abstract future vision, the discussion centered on how fragmented, fast-moving, fan behavior is already reshaping content, distribution, and monetization in real time.
Better Collective’s Britt Boeskov opened the conversation by pointing out that the industry is still built around outdated assumptions about loyalty. “Fans used to be predictable,” she said, explaining that supporters once followed a single team or league for life. Today, that certainty has eroded. Fans move among athletes, formats, platforms, and moments, often following personalities or narratives rather than institutions. For betting operators, she noted, this unpredictability creates both opportunity and pressure, especially for products designed around long-term retention models.
That theme carried through the panel. Mark Phillip, founder and CEO of MetaBet, questioned whether any company truly owns the fan relationship any longer. With sports content spread across streaming platforms, social feeds, alerts, and highlight ecosystems, engagement often comes down to timing rather than brand affinity. He joked, “You can ask any of my exes, I’m really good at being wrong,” before making the larger point that the industry is still guessing what consistently pulls fans in. In a world where more than 100 games are happening globally each day, relevance often comes from surfacing the right moment at the right time.
From the social platform perspective, Ian Hunter, head of Mobile, Console & Real Money Gaming at Snap, said these shifts are largely driven by younger audiences who do not separate sports from social media. Short-form video, creator commentary, and second-screen behavior are no longer secondary habits. “Second screening is no longer a behavior,” he said. “It’s just how people watch.” That reality forces betting brands to rethink creative formats, tone, and placement, meeting fans where they already are instead of trying to redirect them into traditional funnels.
Jeremy Stein, CEO of SportsGrid, reinforced that idea through SportsGrid’s live programming data, which consistently shows peak engagement during games rather than before or after. As full-game viewing declines, real-time analysis and in-play context have become the primary way fans stay connected. “Betting doesn’t create engagement,” Stein said. “Content does.” In his view, betting becomes a byproduct of compelling timely media, rather than the initial hook.
Moderating the session, Stefan Kovach, CEO & Founder of Rarerthings, framed the discussion around participation rather than control. No single platform, operator, or media company owns the fan relationship anymore. Instead, value is earned moment by moment through relevance, timing, and usefulness. As Kovach put it, “It’s not about owning the fan. It’s about earning a place.”
Taken together, the panel painted a clear picture of where fan engagement is headed. The convergence of sports media, social platforms, and betting is already underway, driven by how fans consume content, rather than how companies wish they would. For operators and partners across the ecosystem, the challenge isn’t access to fans, but staying relevant in a landscape where attention is earned one moment at a time.
